


Nasvȋdenje

by anti_ela



Series: Young Severus Snape [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Slav Eileen Prince, Slav Severus Snape, Young Severus Snape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 08:56:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20061382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anti_ela/pseuds/anti_ela
Summary: English curled around his mother's tongue. She began learning before her exile to Hogwarts, before her family sent her away from the continent, away from Grindelwald's war. Yet English was unsafe.





	Nasvȋdenje

**Author's Note:**

> You can mouse over the Slovene words and phrases for a translation. If I made any errors, please let me know!

I.  
English curled around his mother's tongue. She began learning before her exile to Hogwarts, before her family sent her away from the continent, away from Grindelwald's war. Yet English was unsafe. "You've been here twenty years," his father said. "Why can't you fucking talk?"

Slovene flowed from her mouth, every word beautiful, most unknown. If his grandparents had ever seen him, he could have told them "jaz sem Severus," but little else. He was not allowed to learn. She sang him stories anyway, and he dreamed he understood.

Latin was their own secret language, dead to everyone but them. This was how she taught him the names and ways of things.

II.  
When you need to make a choice, consult a linden tree, pluck one heart-shaped leaf, fold it in your handkerchief, keep it close. Once you dream its flowers, you should know.

Your body has its own power. Witches know when to use blood and when to use bone. The best of them know to always use their own.

III.  
"You have never been in love, my Severus," she told him once. "You cannot understand me."

IV.  
The English think their hills are mountains. The English think that wars end. She said they just go quiet, bloodless, like a vampire choosing hibernation that it might live another hundred years.

His mother knew thestrals in her first year and had two other names for them besides.

V.  
Dóbro jútro for the morning, dọ́ber dan for the day, dọ́ber večẹ̑r for the night. Tell your friends zdravo; tell your mother ljubim te.

Goldhorn roams the mountains still; his flowers will grow forever. Someday, we will own ourselves. Until then, the sun will shine.

Lahko noč means good night. Nasvȋdenje means goodbye.


End file.
